MNUMW, MNIPL collaborate for creation care, climate justice

By Susan Mullin and Cindy Saufferer

 

“Don’t desecrate the land in which you live. I live here, too—

I, God, live in the same neighborhood … .” 

~ Numbers 35:34 (The Message)

Minnesota Conference United Methodist Women (MNUMW) and Minnesota Interfaith Power and Light (MNIPL) received a Justice 4 All Grant from the National United Methodist Women to collaborate in two different campaigns, seeking an equitable and speedy transition to a renewable energy economy for the people of Minnesota while demonstrating the breadth of the climate justice movement in Minnesota and the groundswell of demand for strong action on climate justice.

 

100% Renewable Energy

One campaign is MNIPL’s 100% Renewable Energy Campaign which embraces a vision of a Minnesota run on 100% renewable energy, with 100% access to the benefits of renewable energy. 

 

MNIPL plans to amplify this work in 2021 by working with congregations in Minnesota to help them craft their climate stories, and then join together in meetings with our U.S. Congressional Representatives to apply pressure for action on climate justice. 

 

This campaign says “yes” to the future we want to see— renewable energy available to all, with particular consideration for communities most impacted by current pollution and/or by the costs of the transition.

 

Faith communities will benefit by drawing upon our deepest values and learning to express those values in stories that can transform social systems for the better. The climate justice movement will benefit from the strong support of faith communities.

 

Stop Line 3 

 

In solidarity with indigenous groups, including the RISE Coalition (Resilient Indigenous Sisters Engaging with our allies) and Honor the Earth, they are also organizing people of faith in Minnesota to stop the construction of the Line 3 tar sands pipeline in northern Minnesota. 

 

Line 3 would transport corrosive tar sands from Alberta, Canada to Superior Wisconsin.

 

According to the state of Minnesota, Line 3 has a climate change cost to society of $287 billion in damage over 30 years. 

 

Besides this potential negative impact to all people in Minnesota, this pipeline would cross over a hundred waterways in Minnesota alone, including the headwaters of the Mississippi River. 

 

It would also pass extremely close to the border of multiple Native nations and across hundreds of miles of treaty-protected land: land that those communities depend on for drinking water and wild rice gathering.

 

MNIPL partnered with RISE Coalition in creating a petition focused on police brutality in response to Line 3. Also, MNIPL is collaborating with Honor the Earth to create spaces for deep cultural connection and prayerful resistance to Line 3.

 

Susan Mullin is the Director of Faith Community Organizing at MNIPL & co-chair of Minnesota EarthKeepers. Cindy Saufferer is an Earthkeeper & MNUMW President.

 

 

 

“United Methodists are faithfully responding to God’s call to care for creation and challenge systems of injustice.” 

~ UMC Church and Society